General Music Chat

well, i sent my 1980 Gibson "The Paul" on it's way to it's new owner the other day. i never really bonded w that gtr and could never really get the setup dialed in to my liking. so before bidding it Bon Voyage i got to bring it out for one last dance.

i ended up playing it for the last set of a recent gig, and after playing the previous two sets on that big and heavy 17" GUILD X150 archtop.....damn, that LP sure felt great!
i hope i didn't screw the pooch. it wouldn't be the first axe i've let go that i've later kicked myself for.

so...i'm glad i got some video of the old girl.

here's Herbie's Hancock's version of Watermelon Man done up reggae style.... "Reggae Melon Man"???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Mnuurr-1Q

Mighty fine Mark, I left you a comment. I dare say I would make that Paul sound a little different.

yeah.... BETTER!!

thanks for checking it out, Jimmy.

And here I thought I was crazy for referring to instruments in the fashion you did. Glad it doesn't seem so nuts.

You will find the right sidearm for your music, I am sure of it.

"sidearm"....i like that!

i appreciate the sentiment but i'm happy to say i've not only been lucky in love but over the yrs i've been fortunate enough to acquire some truly wonderful instruments that are most near and dear to my heart.

gtr, bass, or mando gig....my biggest problem is deciding which to bring.

i'm not a materialistic guy so it ain't about owning and "collecting" a lot of "things".

i believe some instruments have an undeniable spirit and/or soul to them. they "vibrate" at a little higher frequency than others. maybe that spirit/soul was there when they were built. maybe it came from a previous owner. perhaps we ourselves have imbued it with such with the time we've spent sharing w it. and it w us.

right now i'm really bonding w an old GUILD X150 that i recently picked up. we still have a few things to work out, but i think this could be the start of a long and beautiful friendship!

there's discussion about it in these threads.

http://forum.bandmix.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=29906

http://forum.bandmix.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=29914

and now... i'm off to play bass w some bluegrass pals. easy choice tonight...my '67 Guild Starfire II gets the nod cos it's raining cats and dogs and i don't want to haul my doghouse!

I love all mahogany Gibbys.
The Guild is HEAVY?? I thought that should be a lightweight.
Hmm.....

sheeeet, it's Haystacks Calhoun heavy!

Look @ the bright side.
Heavy guitars suppose to have better tone than light ones.
I've heard that from many professional players but I wonder how much truth there really is in that statement.

i think it's true to a point and then there's the point of diminishing returns. i've played some really good sounding and relatively lightweight strats and teles that sounded great. i do think mass contributes to tone and especially so in the neck. i've swapped around Fender necks on basses and gtrs and everytime w the same body, p/u's, bridge, etc...the bigger heavier neck always sounded better to my ears.

yrs ago i picked up a '66 P Bass that someone chopped the horns off of, chiseled out a slot for an EBO type p/u and somehow had chewed the living crap out of the frets. atrocious to do that to such an instrument! a buddy of mine built me a one piece zebra wood P body and we routed the P pickup slots closer to the bridge because i was gonna pull the frets and make it a fretless. it's a beautiful and great sounding instrument but man-oh-man...it is one heavy sucker!

The sweetest clean tone I ever got was the MM into a Fender TR into a big 2X12 Bassman cab.
Pulled the plug on the combo speakers and ran a cable from the head into the big cab.

did you pull the back off that cab? i've never been a fan of closed back cabs for gtr. to me, i need that "air" and "openess"!
the sound coming out of the back is a big part of what i associate as "Fender tone".

The Starfire bass is the old Jack Casady model?? Too cool!! I want one! Or maybe the Alembic?? That would be even cooler!

yeah, it's the one jack, phil lesh, chris hillman, and a bunch of other '60's guys played. jack is one of my faves, btw.

it's a very cool and vibey instrument....that does a cpl of things really well. by no means is it a swiss army knife w lots of tricks up it's sleeve.

the new "Newark Street" reissues are supposed to be very close to the original and get high marks. they go for around $1100.

there's a semi hollow body "Jack Casidy" model that Epiphone has been making the last few yrs but it's got a longer neck, different p/u's, etc.

here's some video of mine in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O4mIXW8INk

Jack Casady is certainly one of my heroes - guys that punch like him were rare when he started out. He's still punching that hard.

I was never physically comfortable playing those BIG bass guitars however. The only one I saw I liked was when I was very young. I didn't know much then but my impression was that is was like a Gibson ES335 sort of base. Cherry Sunburst. Had that 'old' solid look to it.

When I'm on the way to play with someone I punch up "Bless it's pointed little head" for "Another Side of this Life" and "Plastic Fantastic Lover." Gets me in the mood.

Talbot